The code that runs Redbox DVD rental machines has been dumped online, and, in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy, a community of tinkerers and reverse engineers are probing the operating system to learn how it works. Naturally, one of the first things people did was make one of the machines run Doom.
As has been detailed in several great articles elsewhere, the end of Redbox has been a clusterfuck, with pharmacies, grocery stores, and other retailers stuck with very large, heavy, abandoned DVD rental kiosks. To many people’s surprise, many of the kiosks remain operational even with the bankruptcy of Redbox’s parent company, which has led some people to “liberate” DVDs from the abandoned kiosks. Reddit is full of posts by people who say they have taken dozens of DVDs from kiosks all over the country.
In a Discord community called “Redbox Tinkering,” a FAQ states “just ask the store manager if you can have it. They will most likely tell you to just take it, but don’t just take it without asking.”
“Use heavy or appliance hand-trucks/dolly to wheel it onto your trailer or out to your truck,” the FAQ says. “It is heavy, so be prepared. I pull it right onto the trailer and strap it down standing up. You can lay them down, but know that most of the discs will be in disarray when you open it. Take everything having to do with Redbox, don’t leave a mess.” The FAQ also contains information about how to disconnect the Redbox from its power supply and how to cut through the bolts that secure the kiosk to concrete with a grinder. It also has information about how to open and disassemble the device at home.
“Unlike most tinkerer’s my main goal isn’t to reverse engineer the Official Software more than I have to. I am mainly interested in carousel movement, movie retrieving/returning, etc. I am using the machine to make my own version of the App to effectively do the same thing the original software does, but with my own spin on it. I mainly want to use it to create a massive DVD/Blu-Ray storage machine with ease of use for retrieving the movies.”
“I work in IT and have a decent sized Homelab and I’ve always been interested in making things work again once they break,” they added.
I’m also not sure “just ask the store manager if you can have it” is a good idea. It’s not theirs, and even though Redbox is going through bankruptcy it’s still an asset of the company that can be liquidated to pay debts. Most likely no one will want to buy them, but just seems like a silly risk for tinkering’s sake.
But it’s abandoned on their property. If you abandoned something on a commercial property and never came to reclaim it, eventually (probably quite quickly) the store management would dispose of it. They’re not going to keep it around stinking up the place forever “just in case.”
I’d doubt somebody could officially just unilaterally throw the thing away, but the business on whose property it’s parked absolutely has some kind of contingency to deal with crap left there by one of their vendors. Or they will if they’re a retail operation worth a damn.
yeah I’m sure there is a contract and/or standard legal processes that covers this situation. I’m just saying I wouldn’t rely on a casual interaction with a store manager to cover my ass legally, all for the benefit of putting Doom on a computer kiosk, or outright taking dozens of DVDs.
Mate who’s going to pay the lawyer fee to track down a single asset when the company is gone gone.
What do you mean? Administrators/liquidators will have an entire list of assets owned by the bankrupt company.
They will be looking for a buyer to take on the whole company (assets and liabilities) or sell off the assets to cover liabilities.
Those boxes are still owned, they didn’t magically become fair game because the company owning them went bankrupt.
If people advertise that they stole one of these boxes, they become fair game to be pursued by the liquidators/administrators or any entity buying the ownership of them.
Doing nothing costs a whole lot more than doing something, and then potentially risking getting sued.
Also no random manager is going to take that personal risk. They get paid like 40k a year.
There’s no personal risk. If anything the store would pay. But again no one’s suing for this shit.
You’re going to get fired. That’s a personal risk.